“A new film about Germany’s “chivalrous” Second World War commander, Erwin Rommel has provoked furious criticism from members of his family who claim that its authors portray the “Desert Fox” as an unscrupulous Nazi war criminal who was a favourite of Adolf Hitler.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Picture from The Independent)

Defeated by General Bernard Law Montgomery’s 7th Armoured Division, the famed “Desert Rats”, at the decisive battle of El-Alamein in 1942, Field Marshal Rommel wrote that his campaign against the British was a chivalrous affair and the nearest thing to “war without hate”.

He was later alleged to have been involved in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. But he committed suicide after he was arrested by the Nazis and told that he would be put on trial for his offences and face certain death. In Germany and Britain he is still widely thought of as Nazi Germany’s “decent” general.”